Talk:Jackie Robinson

African American

I've removed most instances of "African American" on the page because it's not entirely true. Robinson didn't just break the color barrier for African Americans- he broke it for all people with dark skin. Several football players today would appear to be "African American", but are actually from American Samoa. Besides, there are also non-black Africans- Egyptians and Libyans (among other people in northern Africa) are Arabic, and some Africans are white. Ernie Els and Nick Price are from South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively, and they're both white. Therefore, saying "African American" is not an all-encompassing term, whereas "black" is much more so. The Blade of the Northern Lights (talk) 17:05, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Moses Fleetwood Walker played for the American Association, then a major league, in 1884, so I reverted the "1880" edit.

Regarding "African American" vs. "black," neither term is wholly satisfactory. Very light-skinned players were barred if they were known to have black slave ancestry, while much darker-skinned players were sometimes allowed to play on the premise, true or false, that they were "Cuban." However, you're probably right that an Australian aborigine would have been barred, and I agree that there is no known case of an American of Egyptian, Libyan, or other Saharan African ancestry being barred, so "African-American" is at least as inadequate as "black" to describe who was excluded. Pirate Dan (talk) 20:47, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

I think I found a basketball player (his name is escaping me now... I don't feel like looking it up again) from Cape Verde who played before basketball integrated in 1950. Cape Verdeans are half Portuguese and half Arabic in origin, but their physical appearance is more Arabic than anything else. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. The Blade of the Northern Lights (talk) 20:44, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

I believe there are some instances in the article where the term "Negro" is used in passages that refer to times when that word would have been in common use but which are not in fact quotes. It might be best to amend this to Black, African-American, or whatever the concensus from the above discussion may be. PurpleChez (talk) 20:03, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Robinson's Racism

Robinson's refusal to participate in old-time games and other events because of the lack of black players, coaches, and managers reveals that he was no less racist than those who controlled baseball prior to April 15, 1947, the date on which he entered the game. He apparently believed that it was entirely acceptable to select baseball personnel on the basis of race; he merely disagreed on which race was entitled to the favored position.

Regarding the equality of the races in baseball, there is a larger issue which should be considered, either in this article or another. That is the declining number of blacks who are participating in major league baseball, regardless of any effort to recruit them. Possible reasons for this might include the extraordinarily high rate of out-of-wedlock births in the black community (estimated at 69% according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States) and the consequent absence of meaningful father-son relationships through which interest in baseball is normally passed down.John Paul Parks (talk) 16:03, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Allegations that Robinson was a racist should be included only if properly sourced. If Robinson refused to play in old-timers' games because he believed blacks were unfairly excluded from them, that of course is no evidence whatsoever that he was racist against whites or thought that participants in old-timers' games should be chosen on the basis of race rather than merit. Robinson was close friends with many of his white teammates, particularly Peewee Reese.

Ill-informed speculation as to the cause of lower black recruitment today is, of course, irrelevant to improving the Jackie Robinson article. Pirate Dan (talk) 21:22, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Pirate Dan!!! PurpleChez (talk) 20:05, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Edit request from 71.189.212.53, 12 January 2011

{{edit semi-protected}} Please remove the offensive work "fuckin" from the body of the text. It is a quote from a person other than Jackie Robinson, and does a dis-service to young readers. It serves no purpose and I am appalled someone allowed it for obviously uneducated reasons.

71.189.212.53 (talk) 07:29, 12 January 2011 (UTC) Not done:The governing policy here is WP:NOTCENSORED. In general, we don't censor Wikipedia, including the use of expletives, sexual issues, religious prohibitions, etc. The rules do require that the use of potentially offensive information have encyclopedic value and not be there merely to titillate, and I believe that that requirement is met here. The use of the expletive is natural speech, and shows the emotional intensity the coach was speaking with. Since we are not allowed to edit quotes, our only option would be to remove the whole thing, and, as a whole, it seems fairly necessary to explain the racial tensions and the coach's refusal to bow to them. As such, I think the quote, including the potentially offensive word needs to stay. Qwyrxian (talk) 13:29, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Awards and recognition (The 42)

I'd heard that on one occasion when there was an anonymnous threat to gun down Roboinson on the field with a sniper rifle from above, one Dodger player suggested that they all wear his number to make it difficult for the assassin. As Robinson would, obviously, still be rather easy to identify, it isn't very logical, but the suggestion still speaks volumes about the team's unity. If such an incident can be documented, it would complement the section about the recent practice of numerous players wearing 42 on certain days to honor Robinson. WHPratt (talk) 17:38, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I recall another situation a few years ago wherein one of the players (I think it a Cincinnati player, maybe Deion Sanders) had his uniform sleeves cut to an odd length in emulation of the way that Robinson wore his. The umpires explained that sleeve length had to be uniform, so the rest of the team responded by having their sleeves tailored similarly, for at least one game. WHPratt (talk) 17:38, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Montreal

8232 Gaspé avenue, Montreal; was recognized yesterday by the US Ambassador to Canada as the home of Robinson in Montreal, with a plaque. 65.95.15.144 (talk) 10:27, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Typo in footnote 172 pp.

66.234.33.8 (talk) 15:31, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

5 not 4 AfrIcan American (s) on UCLA

Please check your sources: Woody Strode was on the team. He wrote an autobiography. The article neglects to mention Johnny Wynne.

• Strode, Woody; with Young, Sam (1990) Goal Dust. Lanham, MD:Madison Books. ISBN 0-8191-7680-X

......going from memory its page 36. I mean you really have to look at the autobiography of a player who was on the team. I looked at the archives there is nothing about this. Also another source that says four is wrong and lists Johnny Wynne:

• Demas, Lane (2010). Integrating the Gridiron:Black Civil Rights and American College Football. New Brunswick, NJ:Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-4741-1

Furthermore check out Bert Bell discussion page. I clearly dispute there only being four. This is 1939 so it would be a herculean task to say and find a verifiable source that says that he was not on the roster because he did not play in X amount of games. Demas clearly flat out says Wynne was suited up for a game. The source in this article looks to be outdated and flat out wrong. I think it was really an omission not to look at Woody Strode's autobiography. And btw, I, literally, copy, almost verbatim, the style and the words of this article.

I mean you really have to look at Woody Strode's autobiography.

This arguably has nothing to do with Jackie Robinson. But, if you look into Jim Brown and Paul Brown, it has more to do with UCLA then anything else. Johnny Wynne made the team, simply and arguably, because he was good enough to make the team. The same really can not be said of Robinson or Kenny Washington. 66.234.33.8 (talk) 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

friends

by nireewwqpp — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.79.193.145 (talk) 15:38, 3 February 2012 (UTC)